It was like a drowning man grabbing at a lifeline… “Jaki, it’s true that in some countries people are jailed for having different political beliefs but that’s mostly what we refer to as ‘Third World’ countries. The modern world doesn’t condone that.”
Tilting her head Jaki said, “Really? I think you are mistaken but that is only one example. I know your people have an incomprehensible fixation on the act of reproduction. Your planet is overpopulated and you have many ceremonies and rituals surrounding procreation; everything from the ceremony of ‘marriage’ when declaring a short-term sexual partner to the ritual of making a ‘sex tape’ to seek fame. These acts are glorified and rewarded yet if the same acts involve the direct exchange of currency you call it prostitution and put the consenting adults in a cage. These are the things you need to explain to us so that we can better understand your civilization.”
“Uh, Jaki, that one might take a little time…”
“What about Controlled Substances? Fifty-five percent of federally incarcerated individuals in your own country have harmed no one but themselves – and in a huge number of cases they have not even done that. Yet you lock them away. You talk about Third World countries but the United States has less than 5% of the world's population and 24% of the world's prison population. The reality is that on your planet the more ‘advanced’ you claim a country to be the higher percentage of its population it locks up. How does your society justify this? Why do your people let it happen?”
It was here that General Nesbit showed why he was the mission commander; “Jaki, I think this is a good time to recess. We want to answer your questions but I think we need to confer and make sure we’re giving you as objective of answers as possible. Let’s reconvene the same time tomorrow.”
∆∆∆
“Well that wasn’t what I expected,” said Julie as the interview ended.
I agreed and told her that I was under the impression that this was supposed to be them informing us about their society, not the other way around. Anzio of course remembered the exact wording… “Actually it was promoted as a free-form exchange of cultural information but I agree that it seemed totally one-sided.”
The three of us were still in my room; I was at my desk while Julie sat at the head of my bed and Anzio was lying back at the foot of the bed with his long legs sprawled out across the floor.
Anzio continued, “Jaki didn’t become confrontational until Dr. Helmer gave her an answer that she clearly believed it to be disingenuous, yes? The thing is I probably would have answered the same way. We lock people up because they’re bad, right?”
“Or, because they’re mentally unstable.” Julie added.
“Well…” I said as I started to think it through… “We’re taught to believe that and more or less socialized to think that way but in reality we’re judging people based on our moral beliefs. We justify these beliefs by claiming we need protection but according to these incarceration numbers I just pulled up on the net, that’s not exactly true. If these stats are right Jaki is technically correct when she says we lock up a majority of people simply because they won’t live their lives the way we want them to. As a society we’re kind of fibbing to ourselves and Jaki is calling us on it.”
“So the Noridians don’t share the same morals as we do. That’s probably to be expected,” Julie said. “Until we each have a better understanding of how our societies ‘think’ there’ll probably be more misunderstandings like this one.”
“You think it was a misunderstanding?” I asked.
“Well, don’t you?”
I wasn’t so sure. Somehow I didn’t believe that Jaki’s little speech was impromptu. The more I thought about it the more I was sure that she staged it. There are certainly a number of things about our civilization that would be hard to defend but we’re not on trial, are we?
“I don’t know. It just seems that she probed an area that we can’t logically defend, and it, well… it gave her the moral high ground. If nothing else it sure put us on the defensive…” And changed the subject as well, I thought to myself.
Chapter 6
Major Mathew Reagan, US Army
The interview with Jaki sent large waves through the Broken Star team, the military, and the government. We already knew that there were hostile entities out there and it was now obvious that our protection had a price. Our protectors were making it clear that they could withdraw that protection at any time. The biggest questions then were what did the Noridians want from us and could we afford not to give it to them?
The international politics had to be landing squarely on General Nesbit’s shoulders and I was thankful I didn’t have his job. The Noridians had contacted several other Heads of State in addition to our President, but had made it clear they would deal with Earth through us. How this didn’t cause a war I’ll never know but it set the stage for Operation Broken Star.
We were a scientific and diplomatic group overseen by the military – as opposed to being a military operation with a scientific and diplomatic element – a distinction that only a true Washington bureaucrat could appreciate. Also, I was told not to refer to myself or my staff as military but rather as security forces. Regardless, we were officially designated B Company, commanded by Brigadier General Nesbit and our personnel strength was 144. B Company was made up of four Platoons and Gen Nesbit’s Headquarters Staff. 1st Platoon was the diplomatic staff, and Platoons 2nd, 3rd, and 4th were given over to scientific duties. I commanded 3rd Platoon. Captain Antonio Silva was my Second in Command and along with three staff members made up my own headquarters. In addition to my HQ my platoon had four squads; Orange, Red, Green, and Blue. Each squad had a security Captain as a Squad Leader and six science personnel. My Squad Leaders and HQ Staff were all handpicked by me except for Captain Silva.
At any rate, my Squad Leaders and HQ staff are very special people. Since we would be weaponless once the journey started (I don’t know if that was a stipulation of the Noridians or an idiotic politician’s idea of showing faith) I wanted the very best hand-to-hand experts on the planet. I was told that I could have anyone I wanted as long as they could be vetted so I had put it to the test and called a friend of mine in the Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF). I thought the two files he sent me were a joke until I watched the video of their martial skills. Twin sisters, attractive and deadly; real Femmes Fatales. I also called every Special Forces officer I had a working relationship with in the U.S. and the U.K. and used their best people to round out my staff and Platoon Leaders. The result was my own seven-man army that could probably, with their bare hands, kill 40 people in a crowded room before anyone had the sense to scream. The other three Platoon Leaders thought I was playing politics by selecting an international team but I didn’t care. I can understand why they’d want to bring their existing staff and command structure but I was going with my gut on this one. I figured it was easier to train Special Forces how to do staff stuff than it was to teach staffers how to be Special Forces.
All of this hadn’t gone unnoticed by General Nesbit. Sometime before we’d arrived at our Nevada facilities he’d called me into his Washington office and questioned me extensively on my choice of personnel. I don’t think he trusted the alien bastards any more than I did but it was our mission to play nice and make friends. It had to have been somewhere in that long conversation that he decided he’d trust me on this. The very next day all but one of my selections were approved and Captain Silva was assigned as my second. General Nesbit actually called me later that evening and apologized for not being able to approve everyone…
“Major Reagan, I tried to get you everyone you asked for but the psych boys were pretty adamant about Clayton’s emotional stability… something about his divorce. Anyway, I pulled some strings and fast-tracked approval on Captain Antonio Silva for you. I know this might look like I’m trying to plant my own personal spy on you but you’re going to have to trust me that’s not the case. After you’ve read his file and t
alked to him if you need to call my office I’ll back you on replacing him but you’re going to have to do it quick – we’re going to be moving the team to a secure location soon and there won’t be any changes after.”
“Yes sir,” I said. “Thank you sir.”
“Matt, I don’t have to tell you how crazy and unprecedented this mission is. You’ve started out thinking outside the box and I respect that but just make sure your team stays in line. I won’t tolerate any threat to the mission.”
“I understand, sir.”
What else could I say? I guess this was the quid pro quo… I got the unconventional team I wanted but I had to take a spy as well… or not. Maybe Captain Silva was a great officer and Nesbit was trying to do me a favor? Only time would tell.
∆∆∆
“Ah, Major Reagan?”
“Yes Jerry?”
“What was the web address I needed to file these requisition forms?”
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
Just then Captain Silva walked in and said, “I’ll handle it.”
We were now moved into the underground Nevada facility and I was just becoming familiar with my new staff at the same time as we were all starting to work with the scientists and now, through interviews, we were all starting to meet the Noridians.
Since Jaki’s initial interview about 20 different Noridians (the actual number was classified) had started meeting with different teams of scientists and diplomats. It was amazing how much talking it took to learn or confirm important details. You might have a simple list of ten questions and never get past the first because the entire session is taken up exploring some new detail that was in the answer which, of course, brings up more questions, etc. A skill I was really learning to appreciate (and cursing that more people didn’t have) was knowing when to stop chasing the rabbit down the rabbit hole; stop following tangents and stay/get back on track.
Although the interviews were still being blogcast live it was impossible to keep up with them. They were all recorded and available 24 hours to Broken Star personnel but the simple math was that there were far more than 24 hours of recording made every day, so most people just read the summaries – and it was still tough to keep up.
The Noridians, for their part, seemed very patient. With my duties to organize, prepare, and protect my platoon of scientists I had even less time than they did to watch interviews but there were a few that stood out for me…
According to the Noridians we and they are originally from the same gene stock. No one knows how many mega-civilizations had populated our galaxy before now and no one knows if they were galaxy-wide or had just inhabited large portions of it. The Noridian’s know of two such civilizations. The first thrived around 500 million years ago and seeded life throughout (at least) this part of the galaxy and the second established itself about 70 million years ago.
This ‘second wave’ civilization was not a builder, but rather a destroyer. There is evidence that they bombarded many worlds with asteroids and the speculation is that this was their brute-force method of bioforming – wiping out the non-desirable indigenes species and letting evolution start over. The Noridians believe this ‘second wave’ civilization was alien to our galaxy and they speak of them as invaders.
One of the scientists on my team, Dr. Mark Spencer, pointed out that this timeline roughly matches up with the meteor impact ‘extinction event’ 66 million years ago that created the Chicxulub Crater on the tip of the Yucatán peninsula. That event wiped-out 90% of all plant and animal life on Earth. Perhaps the ‘second wave’ aliens didn’t like dinosaurs?
Ironically, the Noridians know more about the ‘first wave’ civilization than they do the second. Besides seeding planets throughout this arm of the galaxy they apparently left behind some artifacts. Dr. Anzio Spelini calls them Stasis Bubbles.
Found at seemingly random points throughout explored space they are speculated to be self-contained stasis fields – in other words, for whatever was inside them no time would pass. This theory was proven correct when over the last two thousand years a very few had started to ‘pop’ – and for the contents time had been suspended.
Theoretically a live being could be waiting to take their next breath in any one of these bubbles but so far only inanimate objects had been found. It is an incredible look back (500 million years) at a preserved piece of galactic history.
Perfectly reflective and perfectly round, the size of the bubbles vary from that of a basketball to the largest which is in orbit around a solitary gas giant orbiting a G Type star. It is big enough to hold a good size space station or ship. There is no known way to shut off the field from outside the bubble and the few that have turned off have revealed no ‘stasis machinery’ to reverse engineer.
Enough has been learned however to know that these ‘first wave’ Prometheans (as everyone has started calling them) are the ancestors to all known sentient life in the galaxy. In addition, much of the non-sentient plant and animal life are of similar genotype and phenotype. Our theories on Last Universal Ancestor (LUA) were going to have to be re-explored.
All of this information on first and second wave civilizations was revealed during an interview that was trying to focus on why both the Coridians and Noridians were becoming involved with us; why us, why now? It turns out that the Coridians ‘discovered’ us when a Stasis bubble popped.
The latest bubble to turn itself off was originally discovered 1,334 years ago deep underground in a large mining operation in the Sirius III system and was about the size of a small room. For 1,057 years it just sat there until one day it revealed what may have been a small office or workstation. Although the contents had not deteriorated over time the work console itself appears to have been damaged before it was bubbled – the smell of smoke and burned relays were still present when it popped. While very little information was salvaged one important datum was determined. On what appeared to be a star chart some importance was placed on the fourth planet of a solar system far out in the Orion–Cygnus Arm. Extrapolating backwards 500 million years it was determined that the star was Sol and the planet was what we now call Mars. The Coridians, they explained, discovered us when they went to investigate the Sol system and it was only through happenstance that word of mankind later reached Noridia.
We are fortunate, they said, that Noridians feel a sense of responsibility regarding the actions of Coridia; they share a (binary) star system and the rest of galactic society doesn’t always distinguish between them. The Coridians, left to their own devices, would have no use for Earth and their aggressive nature would have led to certain conflict – and with their technological advantage…
∆∆∆
“So, is Earth arming for war?” asked Captain Ito Hiromi.
We were in my wardroom (which my service, the Army, calls an office). The biggest concern on everyone’s mind, of course, was how much danger we were in. It’s one thing to contemplate your personal risk on a mission but it’s quite another to think your entire species might not survive. Feeling helpless in the face of an enemy is something none of us had ever experienced before – but these were good soldiers and would never come right out and admit something like that (especially to themselves).
“Yes and no,” I answered truthfully.
Captain Hiromi was Blue Squad Leader and her twin sister, Captain Kamiko, was Red Squad Leader. Ito was actually their last name (I think) because I’d been told that certain Asian naming conventions used the last name first, and that’s the way my roster read, and since it was trouble enough keeping them straight I was calling her Captain Hiromi. Captains Hiromi and Kamiko were identical twins and unlike others I’d met they didn’t try to distinguish themselves. Actually, I suspect they went to great lengths to dress alike, look alike, and even carry many of the same mannerisms. Their personalities were reserved by nature and if it wasn’t for the differences in the Blue Squad and Red Squad patches I doubt I could’ve told them apart. I wasn’t regretting my
decision to put them in charge of the squads (they were extremely efficient) but I was concerned enough that I sat them both down for a serious discussion after our first week of working together. I let them know that I demanded the trust of my command staff and that I wouldn’t, I couldn’t, accept any identity games on a mission this critical. After sharing one of those silent communicating looks that only twins can accomplish they both looked me in the eye and vowed that as their commanding officer they would never deceive me. I accepted that at the time and only later realized that this still left virtually everyone else on the mission wide-open. Oh well…
“We’re certainly going to do everything we can to be prepared,” I continued. “All of the major Earth governments appear to be cooperating – which I’ve never seen before – and our military, just like yours Hiromi, is at full alert but at the end of the day there’s not a lot more we can do. The technology differential is incredibly steep and our best defense at this point seems to be the goodwill of the Noridians.”
∆∆∆
Here Comes Earth: Emergence Page 4